Minister of Education Peter Fassbender has issued the
following statement:

“This afternoon, Peter Cameron, lead negotiator for the British
Columbia Public School Employers Association, advised me to reject
yesterday’s call from the BCTF to enter binding arbitration. I
agreed.

“After due diligence and further investigation, it became very clear
that it was another empty effort to give parents and teachers a false
hope that there is a simple way to resolve the dispute.

“At a meeting yesterday, the BCTF made it clear that they would
insist on several preconditions – preconditions that would
effectively tilt the entire process in the BCTF favour. Despite
several efforts by Mr. Cameron, and more than a day later, BCPSEA
still doesn’t have a written proposal from the BCTF.

“This labour dispute is a serious matter that is disrupting the
education of 558,000 students across B.C. Thousands of teachers and
their families are suffering real financial hardship with no end in
sight.

“They deserve better than what they saw yesterday. Mr. Iker and the
BCTF leadership have a duty to their members to negotiate an
agreement — and that requires them to make hard decisions.

“Instead, the BCTF leadership is trying to avoid having the tough
conversation with their members about what is realistic and
achievable at the bargaining table.

“They need to get in the affordability zone on wages and benefits so
we can get to work on negotiating class size and composition – which
both sides agree is the most important issue.

“We are ready to provide teachers with a fair wage increase and we
want to negotiate class size and composition.

“This dispute needs to be settled at the bargaining table and I
invite them again to lift their pickets while the parties work
towards mediating an end to this dispute.”